Thousands welcome Bhutto on Pakistan return from exile (Roundup)

Oct 18, 2007, 12:52 GMT

Pakistan\'s former prime minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto after she landed in her homeland and ended more than eight years of self-imposed foreign exile on 18 October 2007 in Karachi.Bhutto arrived on a scheduled flight from Dubai as millions of supporters and onlookers gathered on the route she was to take from the airport into the center of the city. EPA/OLIVEIR MATTHYS

Karachi, Pakistan - Tens of thousands of people thronged the streets of Karachi Thursday as former prime minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto landed there to end over eight years of self- exile abroad and to stage a controversial comeback on the domestic political scene.

'I have come here to serve the oppressed people of Pakistan,' Bhutto said after arriving to the southern port city on a scheduled flight from Dubai.

'Restoration of democracy is the only guarantee to the people's progress and prosperity,' she added before departing in a slow-moving convoy from the airport to the centre of the metropolis along roads lined with thousands of supporters and onlookers.

Amid a sea of Bhutto banners and billboards across the city, tight security measures were in place following assassination threats by Taliban militants.

Bhutto was riding in a specially constructed bullet-proof rostrum on a truck to the tomb of Pakistan's founding father, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and then to her residence.

More than 15,000 police and paramilitary troops and 5,000 volunteers from her liberal Pakistan People's Party (PPP) were guarding her route.

A security helicopter circled the airport while dozens of snipers provided cover from the rooftops of nearby buildings.

Many chanted 'long live Benazir' when Bhutto, dressed in the green and white colours of the Pakistani flag, waived at the crowd from airport lounge, with tears of joy in her eyes.

Bhutto, 54, a Harvard graduate, will lead the PPP in general elections for a new parliament due before mid-January.

After months of back-channel negotiations, she is also believed to have reached a deal with the country's embattled military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, that will secure her a third term as premier in exchange for her political support.

Prior to her arrival, Bhutto claimed the accord with the military ruler was meant mainly to yield a peaceful transition from military dictatorship to civilian democracy.

'It is not a perfect agreement, but it is an important beginning, bringing reform and political change closer without the chaos and bloodshed under which extremism and militancy thrive,' she said in comments published in British newspaper The Times Thursday.

But many members of her party and of the pro-Musharraf ruling Pakistan Muslim League, feel betrayed by the cooperation between the leaders. The government in Islamabad recently granted Bhutto an amnesty on corruption charges dating to her two-time tenure between 1988 and 1996.

Washington and London have pushed hard for Musharraf to work with Bhutto, who they regard as natural partners in maintaining stability in the nuclear-armed state and pressing home the fight against Islamic extremism emanating from the volatile tribal belt by the border with Afghanistan.

The former premier left Pakistan in 1999 to escape prosecution for alleged corruption under her successor, Nawaz Sharif, who was later deposed and expelled by General Musharraf in a military coup in October that year.

However, with Pakistan's Supreme Court still due to rule on the legality of the amnesty - termed a 'national reconciliation ordinance' - Bhutto potentially faces a renewal of the charges against her and her husband related to their accumulation of hundreds of millions of dollars.

She denies any wrongdoing and dismisses the cases as politically motivated.

Citing the need to avoid 'turmoil' in the country, Musharraf twice asked her to delay her return until the court rules on the ordinance and on the legitimacy of his re-election earlier this month while still holding the post of army chief.

While he defends his right to run for five more years while still in uniform, the president has undertaken to relinquish his military status before he is sworn in for a further term.

The business community generally welcomed Bhutto's return with positive mood. Karachi Stock Exchange benchmark KSE-100 Index Thursday closed at all-time high of 14755 points on robust trading, with a gain of 165 points on a single day.

Bhutto, whose first name means 'matchless', is expected to spend several days in Karachi before travelling by road 320 kilometres to her ancestral home of Larcana, also located in the southern Sindh province.